The Marquette University Police Department released its Annual Security and Fire Safety Report Sept. 29.
This year saw higher rates of motor vehicle theft, drug and illegal weapons arrests. Those data points in the ASR don’t necessarily indicate more crimes being committed, but are likely the result of having a police force on campus making those arrests that may previously not have been made.
“Marquette is fortunate to have dedicated, caring officers who are committed to keeping our campus and our neighborhood safe, and committed to living out our university’s mission,” Chris Jenkins, associate director of university communication, said. “We’ve seen significant reductions across several categories of crime since MUPD became a commissioned department in May 2015.”
The ASR results reflect on-campus crime as required by federal law, and do not include crimes from off-campus properties.
One notable difference presented in the ASR lies within the campus disciplinary referrals data. The amount of on-campus disciplinary referrals for alcohol-related incidents have dropped by 9.6 percent since 2014, whereas drug related referrals have increased by 14.2 percent.
Sex offenses have decreased by 3 percent since 2014, when there were 20 offenses, compared to 2016 where there were only 8.
In his opening statement in the ASR, MUPD Chief Paul Mascari said, “Marquette University is in the process of developing new and updated prevention programs for sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.”
Mascari directed questions about the specifics of that statement to Christine Harris Taylor, the Title IX coordinator.
“Our Title IX team is always looking to improve our policy to make it more user-friendly for students, faculty and staff,” Taylor said in an email, but did not give any explicit examples of potential changes.
Mascari also said, “Disciplinary procedures and policies are being updated to comply with federal law, reflect best practices, and to ensure sensitivity and fairness to all those involved,” and again directed questions to Taylor, who did not give any definitive response as to what those updates would include.
“Marquette University’s policy has been approved by the U. S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. We are in compliance with federal law,” Taylor said.
She also said that Marquette’s Sexual Violence Prevention Education Task Force reviews the current sexual assault prevention programs, and assesses their effectiveness and uses current research and best practices to make recommendations regarding the programming.
